


an unexpected encounter

by SyverneSien



Series: Sy's Helscraft Fics [1]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Dimension Travel, Ficlet, Friendship, Gen, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Redstone (Minecraft), Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 19:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30060381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyverneSien/pseuds/SyverneSien
Summary: Iskall runs into some near-familiar faces in the shopping district, having some trouble with their inter-dimensional travel machine. Calling themselves Balderdash and Charleston, these two are unlike any other 'evil' Hermits that Iskall has ever heard of.And so, naturally, he introduces them to their Hermitcraft counterparts.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Oliver Brotherhood & Thomas | TangoTek
Series: Sy's Helscraft Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2213622
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	an unexpected encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Just in case anybody is wondering, Balderdash and Charlie belong to me--I made them up--and all Helscraft lore in this fic is completely self-made (with some inspiration drawn from others), so little to none of this has any basis in Hermitcraft canon. Enjoy!

Iskall was having a perfectly normal day. An ordinary, boring day. He was walking down the main street of the shopping district, a shulker box of items tucked under his arm, and whistling to himself. He had to meet up with Mumbo to work on Pacific later in the day, but for now, he was just enjoying a stroll. Iskall needed the break.

So the last thing he was hoping for was something very strange to happen. And thus that was exactly what occurred.

It started with a strange whooshing sound, then a crackle not unlike the sound of electricity. Iskall stopped and turned, looking back towards the town hall. Then with a great  _ boom _ and a  _ crash _ , some sort of machine tumbled out of the sky and landed in the middle of the street.

Curiously, Iskall set down his shulker box and started making his way towards the device. It was large and rectangular, with a door on the front and a lot of wires poking out from the sides. Iskall drew his sword and tentatively poked the door with it.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, the door slammed open and two men stumbled out, making Iskall jump back. The Hermit blinked--these men were familiar, except somehow… not.

The first was a tall, slender, and pale man with a moustache and short, dark hair, looking very similar to Mumbo, except his facial hair wasn’t nearly as bushy. He was dressed in a black button-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and black dress pants, both faintly stained with redstone, and crimson suspenders with a matching bow tie. He was also wearing dark gloves and some clunky shoes that looked out of place with the rest of his outfit.

The second closely resembled Tango, with slicked-back blond hair tied into a ponytail and the redstoner’s trademark red eyes, but there was a distinct difference in that this man had what looked to be a burn scar that spread up his neck and over part of his cheek. His outfit, too, was just slightly different--it consisted of a solid black tank top with a dark red leather jacket on top, black pants with a red pattern zig-zagging down the sides, and knee-high black boots.

Iskall opened his mouth to ask what on earth was going on, but before he could, the two men (seeming as if they hadn’t noticed Iskall standing there) turned to each other and started to argue in loud voices.

“Look what you’ve done!” Almost-Mumbo shouted. “I told you not to touch the controls! I told you that everything would work fine if you just kept your hands to yourself!”

“You had it all wrong!” Almost-Tango shot back. “I built most of this thing, Balderdash! I know how to work it!”

Almost-Mumbo, or Balderdash, as the other had called him, snorted. “You built part of it and almost broke the rest of it! Sorry if I don’t trust your genius, Charlie, but you’re not always the most  _ reliable-” _

“Neither are you!” fired back Almost-Tango (Charlie) with a glare. “I still haven’t forgotten about the  _ chicken _ incident-”

Iskall cleared his throat. “Gentlemen?”

They didn’t seem to hear him.

“Oh, the chicken incident? We’re bringing up  _ that _ again?” Balderdash groaned and rolled his eyes. “For your information, that was all  _ Rye’s _ fault, I was just trying to clean up the mess that  _ he _ made-”

“Take responsibility for once!” Charlie spat. “Nothing’s ever your fault, you’re just oh so perfect, maybe I’ll leave you and go work with  _ Spector, _ huh, how would you feel about that? At least he would own up when something’s clearly his fault!”

“SPECTOR?!” Balderdash clenched his hands into fists and grimaced. “You would- you would  _ abandon _ me so easily for that- that pretentious drama queen?”

“In case you hadn’t realized, dude, you’re  _ also _ a pretentious drama queen,” Charlie hissed.

Balderdash gasped. “I can’t  _ believe _ this-”

“Anyway, now that we’ve figured out it’s your fault the machine screwed up and dropped us here, we need to figure out where exactly ‘here’ is.” Charlie folded his arms over his chest and turned away from Balderdash,  _ finally _ noticing Iskall. “Oh.” He blinked. “...Fiver?”

“Don’t be silly, he looks nothing like Fiver,” Balderdash said with a snort. “Too… fleshy.”

“You literally could have phrased that a million other ways,” Charlie muttered under his breath. His gaze snapped back to Iskall. “Um- you! Who are you and where are we, exactly? Also, how long have you been standing there?”

“My name’s Iskall, this is Hermitcraft, and the whole time,” Iskall replied. “Where did you two come from?”

Balderdash and Charlie glanced between each other.

“Hermit-” Balderdash started.

“-craft?” Charlie finished.

Iskall blinked his good eye. “Er, yes?”

They groaned in unison. “Oh,  _ no,” _ Charlie sighed. “This is even worse than I thought.”

“We have to get back as soon as we can.” Balderdash wrung his hands together. “Evil X is going to  _ kill _ us-”

Iskall raised his sword, drawing the pair’s attention back to him. “Did I just hear you say  _ Evil X?” _

Both men looked increasingly more uncomfortable the longer the sword was pointed at them. “To be fair, we don’t like him all that much either,” Balderdash insisted hurriedly.

Something fluttered around in Iskall’s mind. Wels had had an incident with a cloning machine and an evil version of himself claiming to be from a place called Hels earlier in the season…  _ “Where did you come from?” _ Iskall asked again, trying to make his tone as threatening as possible.

“Helscraft,” Charlie blurted. “We’re from Helscraft.” Balderdash opened his mouth to add something, but Charlie elbowed him in the stomach and continued. “Yes, that’s the same place as Evil Xisuma, Helsknight, BadTimes…”

“You’re Evil Tango and Evil Mumbo,” Iskall identified. Both men winced.

“Evil is a harsh word…” Balderdash started.

“There’s a reason Evil Xisuma is the only one without a nickname,” Charlie put in. “The rest of us, with a few exceptions-”

Balderdash gave a deliberate cough that sounded suspiciously like ‘Helsknight’.

“-are not nearly as focused on ‘blah blah take over another server and wipe out our counterparts’ as he is,” Charlie finished. “I, honestly, would have been  _ very _ happy to never see this place ever in my life.”

Iskall blinked again. “So you just want to go back?” he questioned. Balderdash and Charlie were the first ‘evil’ Hermits he’d ever met, and both of them seemed relatively… nice, despite the arguing.

Balderdash nodded. “If we get this machine back up and running, we’ll be gone in an instant.” He jerked his thumb towards the device.

“And then I’ll destroy it so that none of the other Helsmits can get their hands on it,” Charlie said, with a twinge of sadness in his voice.

In a split second, Iskall made his decision. “I’ll help you,” he told them. “First, we have to get this machine out of the shopping district.” The Omega Tree was too far, but… Toon Towers was just across the way. Iskall glanced at Charlie. “I’ll call some friends.”

“Not too many friends,” Balderdash warned. “It would be best if as few Hermits as possible know about us.”

Iskall nodded. “Let’s move your, uh-”

“Teleportificator,” Charlie provided, and it sounded so much like Tango that Iskall felt almost uncomfortable.

“Let’s move your teleportificator out of the middle of the street. There’s a base nearby we can take it to,” Iskall said.  _ And hopefully, Tango doesn’t freak out too much. _

* * *

The massive piston door dropped open with a  _ thunk _ to reveal Tango on the other side, who simply stared at Iskall, Balderdash, and Charlie for a few long moments.

“Er… Tango, this is Balderdash and Charlie--Balderdash and Charlie, this is Tango Tek,” Iskall introduced, looking between the Hermit and the Helsmits.

It was Balderdash who spoke first, nervously fiddling with his bow tie. “Nice to finally meet you,” he said quietly.

Then Tango seemed to find his words and stammered, “Y-yeah, you too.” His eyes were completely fixed on Charlie, unblinking. “You’re…”

“Charleston,” Charlie said firmly. “Charleston… Tek. But everybody just calls me Charlie.” The two Tangos awkwardly shook hands, with Tango quickly pulling his hand back as if Charlie had burned him. “I don’t bite, I promise,” Charlie joked weakly.

Tango bit his lip. “Come inside,” he said, moving out of the way of the Helsmits and Iskall. “Let’s see if we can get that machine fixed.”

One mildly awkward team effort later, they managed to get Balderdash and Charlie’s device onto the main floor of Tango’s tower. It was around that time that Mumbo finally replied to a message that Iskall had sent him earlier.

**_MumboJumbo whispers to you: on my way!_ **

Iskall clicked his communicator off and looked up at Tango, Charlie, and Balderdash, who seemed to be attempting to start a conversation.

“What’s, um, what’s Helscraft like?” Tango asked, sounding exceedingly curious but nervous at the same time.

“Chaos,” Charlie answered. “That’s the simple answer. It’s just chaos. Evil X is  _ sort of _ in charge, but he doesn’t care what we do, and the rest of us don’t care either, so…”

“If you build something, it  _ will _ get blown up,” Balderdash put in. “But don’t think that we hate each other. Evil X hates all of us and we all hate him, but other than that we’re on… decent terms, most of us.”

“Despite the exploding and the maiming and the killing,” Charlie put in.

“Despite the exploding and the maiming and the killing,” Balderdash repeated with a nod. “Some bits of the server have been completely destroyed all the way down to bedrock.”

“It’s  _ wonderful,” _ Charlie commented with a wistful sigh. “No place like home.”

Tango nodded, but looked a little conflicted. “Why do some of you have names and others… don’t? Like Evil X?” he asked.

Charlie shrugged. “None of us had names to start with. We were all just like Evil Xisuma. ‘Cept then we started becoming independent, splitting away from the whole ‘evil counterpart’ thing and being happy with having our own server. So we gave each other nicknames.”

_ “I _ came up with mine,” Balderdash said proudly, puffing out his chest. “I think it’s smart.”

“Spector thought of Charleston,” Charlie explained. “I said no at first, because I thought it sounded too…” he waved a hand vaguely, “...y’know, but then Rye suggested shortening it to Charlie, and the rest’s history.”

“Spector? Rye?” Tango repeated. Iskall took a few steps towards the group at that, wanting to listen in. He’d heard those names earlier as well and wanted to know who they belonged to.

“Spector’s our Doc,” Balderdash told them. “Short for Inspector. He’s…” Balderdash paused and pursed his lips, “...awful?”

“Don’t listen to BD,” Charlie said, elbowing Balderdash in the side. “Spector’s alright. He just likes his mysteries and making everybody jump through ridiculous hoops whenever they want to talk to him about anything.”

“Anyway, Rye is our Grian,” Balderdash continued. “He didn’t want to be called Rye, but-”

“Reckless thought it was hilarious and the name stuck,” Charlie finished.

“When you first saw me, you thought I was someone named Fiver,” Iskall said, drawing their eyes to him. “Is he the Helscraft version of me?”

Balderdash nodded. “He’s pretty reclusive. Also very… robot-y.”

“Dude’s obsessed with efficiency,” Charlie added. “Keeps trying to ‘upgrade’ himself like something out of a bad sci-fi movie. He’s a little nuts.”

Just then, Iskall heard the sound of rockets and elytra outside on the balcony, and Mumbo appeared at the doorway. “Hello, I-” Mumbo started, before catching sight of Balderdash and Charlie and faltering.

“You must be Mumbo Jumbo,” Balderdash identified, once again taking initiative and walking towards the Hermit. “I’m Balderdash.”

“Balder...dash. Balderdash?” Mumbo’s eyes lit up as he seemed to realize what was happening. “Oh! I see! Yes, I’m Mumbo!” He enthusiastically grabbed Balderdash’s hand and shook it. “This is amazing! I’ve always wanted to meet another version of myself!”

Balderdash seemed a little overwhelmed by Mumbo’s excitement, cracking a sheepish smile as the Hermit let go and caught him by the arm. “Um, and this is my friend Charlie…” he added tentatively.

“Charlie…?” Mumbo’s brow furrowed as he glanced between Charlie and Tango.

“Charleston Tek,” Charlie said. “BD ‘n’ I are partners.”

_ “Business _ partners,” Balderdash put in. “Despite what Rye would like the rest of Helscraft to think…”

The Helsmits sighed in unison.

“I’d almost forgotten about that,” Charlie admitted. “D’you think he’s still-”

“Absolutely.” Balderdash nodded. “Anyway, um, we’ve got this teleporter that brought us here, but it’s a little broken and we need to fix it in order to get back.”

“And we’d like to get home as soon as possible,” Charlie added with an insistent grin.

There was a beat of silence.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Tango then exclaimed, looking around at the gathered redstoners. “Let’s get to work, gentlemen!”

* * *

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Mumbo asked, furrowing his brow at the supposedly now-fixed machine.

“Only one way to find out,” Charlie answered with a shrug. “If it does work, uh, well, this is goodbye.”

“Hopefully for forever,” Balderdash added. “Charlie and I are nice enough, but Helscraft and Hermitcraft really shouldn’t mix.”

“It’s better for everyone,” Charlie finished with a nod. “Thanks for the help.” He glanced between the three Hermits. “It kind of has been nice to meet you guys, though.”

“I almost wish you didn’t have to go,” Tango commented. “It would be really cool to have you around, Charlie.” He smiled. “If you ever  _ do _ end up back here, there’s a place for you in Toon Towers.”

Charlie hid his face inside the box and Iskall suspected that he was grinning.

“Ah- yes, that goes for you too!” Mumbo put in, looking at Balderdash. “I’d love to hear more about what it’s like over there in Helscraft.”

Charlie re-emerged from the box. “Maybe we can try to figure out a way to keep in contact. Some kind of… inter-dimensional communicator thingamajig.”

“I mean, we did make this,” Balderdash rapped on the machine with his knuckles, “so nothing’s impossible when Charlie and I put our brain cells together.”

“But I’m obviously the smarter one,” Charlie told the Hermits in a lower voice.

“Oh, no, I can’t believe you would even  _ consider-” _ Balderdash started, before Tango interrupted.

“You two can argue once you’re safe and the teleportification machine is destroyed,” the Hermit said. “Good luck.”

“It’ll be fine,” Charlie insisted. “Even if we  _ do _ land somewhere else, it shouldn’t break this time, so…” He shrugged. “We’ll get back eventually.”

“Time to go,” Balderdash said, tugging Charlie into the box. “Thanks again, Hermits. And, uh, don’t tell anybody else about this if you can manage it?”

“We won’t tell a soul in Helscraft,” Charlie added sincerely.

“My lips are sealed,” Mumbo promised, and Iskall and Tango nodded.

“Well… that’s it, then.” Charlie gave them all a final smile and reached for the handle on the door. “Bye-bye!”

The Hermits murmured their goodbyes as Charlie slammed the door shut. And then, with a loud crackle of electricity and a loud  _ thoom, _ the machine sparked out of existence, leaving no trace that the Helsmits had ever been there in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked that little self-indulgent ficlet! Let me know what y'all think of Charlie and BD, they're very fun to write, and I enjoyed actually putting some of my Helscraft headcanons/lore on "paper" for once. I am 100% down for answering questions about my Helscraft stuff, whether it be here in the comments or over on my Tumblr (slimetek) where you can send me an ask!  
> Thank you for reading, love y'all <3


End file.
